Kingston organization raises thousands to help students in Pakistan

A fundraising effort by a Kingston-based organization has raised close to $16,000 to help students in Pakistan go to university.

The Christian Cultural Association of South Asians (CCASA), a Canadian seniors organization headquartered in Kingston, has partnered with the Anglican Church of Canada to establish Pakistani Youth Education, a bursary program for Pakistan youth people.

The fund was established in the wake of the September 2013 twin suicide-bombing at All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan. The attack killed 127, injured more than 250 and left 41 orphans.

The bombing was among the deadliest in a string of attacks that have targeted schools in the country in the past three years.

Anglican Bishop Michael Oulton said the educational fund supported one of the best responses to terrorism.

“Rather than return violence for violence, we try to find a way to instil a new vision in people,” Oulton said. “My prayer is that among those 41 orphans and others like them are those who would recommit themselves to a bright future, to a hope-filled future.”

Oulton said he sees education as terrorism’s “Achilles heel.”

“When you think about the amount of funds that it takes to support someone in an educational situation in Peshawar or in Parkistan or in the Middle East or wherever, for what would be a minuscule amount of money here provides such boost to people who otherwise wouldn’t have it,” Oulton said.

On Tuesday, the bursary fund received a $2,000 donation from CCASA’s fundraising efforts.

“Our belief is that education is the backbone to reconciliation, the backbone to change peoples’ mind, the backbone to uplifting the community. Education is very expensive in Pakistan,” said Sam Laldin, CCASA’s chairman and chief executive officer.

“This will provide a bursary to some students. It will change the lives of those families because if one person from a family is educated, it can changes the life of the whole family,” he said. “We’re educating the people, we’re educating the families, we’re educating the whole community.”

Laldin said the fundraising effort, which is the only fund supporting Pakistan orphans, has received donations from the United Kingdom, the United States and the Pakistani community in the Greater Toronto Area. But its top fundraiser so far is Kingston’s Dr. Soni Pancham.

“I have looked at education as the long-term growth,” said Pancham, who credited his grandfather with insisting he go to school. “My grandfather, who was the one who said you better go to school, never had any education.”

Pancham has, in turn, helped his four children go to university with the promise that they would help educate their children and others.

“No one has actually refused to give me a donation to this cause,” he said. “We have children, we have children in need.